Safety deposit-box.



No. 738,251. PATENTED SEPT. 8, 1903.

E. A. STRAESISE- SAFETY DEPQHT'BOX.

APPLICATION FILED, NOVL18, 1901.

N0 MODEL,

Invenfor pa 6 156 zvmzvmf 1w,

resented September 8, 1963.

PATENT OFFICE.

EMIL A. STRAUSS, or onioAeo, ILLINOIS.

SAFETY DEPOSIT-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 738,251, dated September 8, 1903. Application filed November 18, 1901. Serial No- 82,695. (No model.)

To all whmn it may concern;

Be it known that I, EMIL A. STR USS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Safety Deposit-Boxes, (Case No. 1,) of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to safety depositboxes, and has for its object the construction of such boxes with removable fronts, so that they may be polished from time to time without disturbing the renters,

At the present time the highly-polished doors of safety deposit-boxes have to be removed from time to time, so that they may be renovated and repolished. In order to do this, the renters of the boxes have to be notified, so that they may remove their valuables to other quarters temporarily, so that the doors may be removed from the boxes for the purposes set forth. This obviously is very troublesome. Moreover, some of the renters are frequently inaccessible, in which case the fronts of their boxes cannot be renovated and polished, rendering the appearance of the safety deposit-boxes non-uniform.

In practicing my invention I provide the doors of the safety deposit-boxes with separable metallic face-plates upon the fronts thereof, each door being provided with such a face-plate substantially equal in area to the face of the door. These face-plates are suitably apertured and recessed to receive the projecting ends of the lock frames or barrels surrounding the keyholes and the leaves of the hinges. The face-plates may be removably secured in place by means of screws passing into the body of the door and engaging the outer faces of the plates. These screws may be in any form desired. I prefer to employ screws in the form of shouldered washers adapted for a threaded engagement with the said barrels, so that the shoulders may engage the face-plates to hold the same steadily against the door-bodies.

I will explain my invention more fully by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 illustrates a plurality of safety deposit-boxes grouped together, being a por= tion of a bank of these boxes. Fig. 2 is a view, on a larger scale, of the front of one of the box-doors. Fig. 3 is a view of a modified construction. Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 4 4 of Fig.2. Fig. 5 is a sectional View on line 5 5 of Fig. 3.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the different figures.

A group of box-openings a is indicated in Fig. 1, each having a door I), that may be united to side margins of the openings by means of hinges, in this instance in the form of hooks and eyes. The box-openings are formed by horizontal and vertical partitions a a of steel. The leaves 0 of the hinges that support the hooks may be mounted upon the side margins of the box-openings, while the leaves 01, that support the eyes, may be mounted upon the doors. The latter leaves are directed diagonally from the doors and are preferably secured to the main bodies e thereof by detachable angle-plates f, fastened upon the rear of the door-bodies. The door-bodies are provided with aperturesg and h, through which the lock-barrels t and 7a of the master and individual locks may be passed. Instead of finishing and polishing the front faces of the door-bodies, which would necessitate the removal of the doors from time to time for this purpose, I provide the door-bodies with removable face-plates l, which are suitably apertu red and recessed to receive the barrels 2'70 of the locks and to accommodate the leaves of the hinges projecting from the door-bodies, the side margins of these face-plates next the hinges being in this instance provided with rectangular recesses m m to accommodate the hinge-leaves. These face-plates may be, removably secured in position in any suitable way-as, for example, by means of fancifully-headed screws n n, as indicated in Fig. 2, or by means of shouldered washers 0 o, as indicated in Fig. 3. Where fancifully-headed screws are employed, the doorbodies are provided with threaded holes, the screws being passed through the face-plates into these holes. IVhere shouldered washers are employed, I prefer to thread the lock-barrels a slight distance from their outer ends and to correspondingly thread the washers,

ISO

so that they may engage with the barrels to bring the flanges and the shouldersp into ongagement with the face-plates to firmly sesure the same in position. This method is preferred, as it is not apparent to the casual observer that the face-plates are removably secured.

In order that the use of the safety depositbox may be continued without interruption while the decorative face-plates are removed for the purpose of refinishiug,the bodies of the doors are provided with the sa me numbers that appear upon the separate face-plates-for example, as indicated in Fig. 2. There is there shown a door whose face-plate is provided with the number of the box, 5426. In Fig. 3 another door is shown, whose face-plate is provided with the box-number 5427, a portion of this face-plate being broken away to reveal the same number, preferably in smaller characters, directly upon the body of the door.

\Vhile I have shown one particular style of look, I do not wish to be limited as to the form of lock that may be employed.

Another important advantage in connection with the device of my invention lies in the fact that the face-plates may be highly decoratedas, for example, by a stampingmachine to press the decorations into the face-plates-thns giving to the doors an appearance that was hitherto impossible to se cure because of the nature of the material used for the door-bodies.

It is obvious that changes may readily be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I do not, therefore, wish to be limited to the precise disclosure herein set forth; but,

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A bank of safety-deposit-box openings formed by a structure of horizontal and vertical partitions, the said box-openings having lock-doors hinged upon said structure, in combination with numbered metal faceplates removably secured to the fronts of the doors, the face-plates being apertured to accommodate the locks in the doors and each substantially-covering its door, the bodies of the doors being numbered to correspond with the face-plates so that the face-plates of the bank may be removed without destroying the designation of the boxes, substantially as described.

I 2. Abank ofnumbered safetydeposit-boxes formed by a structure of horizontal and vertical partitions, lock-doors hinged to the said structure and face-plates removably secured and apertured to accom modate the 1ocks,each door having a face-plate substantially covering the same, the bodies of the doors being numbered, whereby the face-plates may be removed without destroying the numbering of the boxes, substantially as described.

In witness whereofI hereunto subscribe my name this 6th day of November, A. D. 1901.

EMIL A. STRAUSS.

Witnesses:

GEORGE L. CRAGG, HARVEY L.'HANSON. 

